ART: Flesh & Framework by Sarah Picard; NHAA July Exhibition

Description

The New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) is thrilled to present Flesh & Framework by artist Sarah Picard, an intimate exhibition exploring the fragility of the internal self and the inherited structures that distort feminine identity. External ideas about beauty, worth, and womanhood can become so deeply absorbed that they're indistinguishable from one's own voice, and the artist honestly explores the disconnect between her inner and outer facing identities often imposed by others. Using oil, pastel, charcoal, and found materials, Picard layers figures and uncalculated, gestural marks to assert the fragmentation, dissolution, and doubling that occurs in the feminine body. These works are simultaneously soft and uncomfortably raw, continuing the artist's ongoing exploration into the vulnerability and tension in feminine identities.

The intimate gallery space uses scale and closeness as confrontation to dive into confession as quiet contemplation of the self. The viewer is confronted with complexities and resilience embodied in a feminine experience. When moving physically close to Picard’s works, one feels clear, yet layered, emotions from tenderness to shame and longing that inspect how identity is shaped by the frameworks we carry, both inherited and self-imposed.

Picard is a multidisciplinary artist based in New Hampshire, and she exhibits all throughout New England at the Fitchburg Art Museum, Aplomb Gallery, Mosaic Art Collective, and the Arts League of Lowell. Her works are held in various private collections in Los Angeles CA, Manchester (UK), and throughout the United States, and she has been featured in The Weekender (The Substack Post). Flesh & Framework will be on view at the New Hampshire Art Association’s Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, 136 State St, Portsmouth, NH, 03801, from July 1st to 26th, with an opening reception on July 3rd, 5-8 pm. Meet the Artists, a special reception to get a closer look into the inspiration behind the artists’ hard work, will be on July 18th, 3 - 5 pm. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 11 am to 5 pm, Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm, and Sunday from 12 pm to 5 pm.